The Sinking of the Lancastria (31 page)

Lanconia
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Lashbrook, Lance Corporal Morris,
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Lawrence, Peter,
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Lebrun, President Albert,
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Legroux, Emilie,
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Legroux, Madame,
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Legroux, M.,
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Legroux, Roger,
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Les Moutiers,
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Lindeman, Professor Frederick,
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Llewelyn-Jones, Mervyn,
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Looche, Thérèse van,
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Luciani, Michel,
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Lumsden, Horace,
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Lusitania
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Lutwaffe,
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see also
Diving Eagle squadron

Macfadyen, Wing Commander,
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McMenemy, Padre Captain Charles,
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Macpherson, Sergeant,
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Maid of Kent
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Maloney, Denis,
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Mandel, Georges,
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Manning, Tom,
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Maurois, André,
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Miller, Sergeant,
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Monnet, Jean,
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Moore, ‘Chippy’,
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Mussolini, Benito,
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Nantes,
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Newlove, Richard,
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Noblanc, Gaston,
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Number One Heavy Repair Shop,
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O’Brien, Joe,
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Oldham, Wilfred,
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Operation Aerial,
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; success of,
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Operation Cycle,
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Oracle
, HMS,
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Oronsay
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Pack, Harry,
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Paris: falling of to Germans,
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Pay Corps,
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Pearse, Joe,
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Perfect, Teddy,
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Perrin, William Reeves,
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Pétain, Marshal Philippe,
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Peterson, Bob,
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Petit, Denise,
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Pettit, Sergeant Harry,
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Picken, Sergeant Major,
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Portes, Hélène de,
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Proctor, Private,
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Punjabi
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Quittenton, Edwin,
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Ratcliffe, Jack,
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Resistance,
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Reynaud, Paul,
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Richelieu
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Rimmer, Stanley,
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Rock, Johnny,
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Rodes, Joan,
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Rolland, Marie,
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Roosevelt, Franklin,
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Roskill, Captain,
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Royal Army Service Corps,
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Royal Artillery,
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Royal East Kent Regiment,
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Royal Engineers,
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Royal Ordnance Corps,
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Royal Signals unit,
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Royal Sussex regiment (6th),
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Royal Welch Fusiliers,
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Saint-Exupéry, Antoine de,
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Saint-Michel
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Sandys, Duncan,
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Sapsford, Mrs,
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Saxton, Joe,
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Scott-Bowden, Major,
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Sharp, Captain Rudolph,
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Shaw, Dr,
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Sheehan, Michael,
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Sherwood Foresters,
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Shorthouse, Colonel,
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Shropshire
, HMS,
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Skeels, Jim,
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Skelton, G.,
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Slater, Bill,
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Smith, Walter James (Wally),
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Sobieski
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South Staffordshire Regiment,
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Spears, General Edward,
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St-Etienne de Montluc,
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St-Nazaire,
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; boarding of troops on to
Lancastria
,
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; British bombing raids on,
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; British Garrison command in,
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; embarkation of troops to evacuation boats,
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; entering of
Lancastria
and other boats into estuary,
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; German bombing raids,
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; survivors of
Lancastria
taken to,
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; troops and civilians making way to for evacuation,
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; waiting for embarkation,
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Stahl, Peter,
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Steel, George,
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Stevens, Barry,
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Stevenson, Les,
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Stott, Captain Clement,
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Strathaird
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Suggate, Colonel,
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Sweeney, Joe,
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Teresias
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Thomson, George,
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Tilley, William Henry,
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Tillyer, Clifford,
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Tillyer, Jacqueline,
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Tillyer, Vera,
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Tips, Fernande,
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Titanic
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Tours: bombing of,
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Trott, Sister,
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Vanquisher
, HMS,
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Vinicombe, Peter Walker,
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von Rundstedt, General,
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Watling, George,
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West, Isabel,
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Weygand, General Maxime,
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Wilkins, Richard,
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William Beardmore Company,
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Wolverine
, HMS,
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Youngs, Sergeant George,
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List of Illustrations

1. The
Lancastria
leaves Liverpool in her Cunard colours in her pre-war glory days. She was, a crew member recalled, a ‘very, very happy ship’.

2. The ornate salon where passengers dined in peacetime and hundreds of men would be trapped in June 1940.

3. Captain Rudolph Sharp, a man with a horror of war.

4. Chief Officer Harry Grattidge, future ‘Captain of the Queens’, who would walk out into the sea.

5. Troops lining up on the docks at St-Nazaire to be evacuated. The
Lancastria
was their goal.

6. Heading for home.

7. The
Highlander
jammed with men being taken out to the
Lancastria
.

8. The JU-88, pride of the Luftwaffe and nemesis of the
Lancastria
.

9. The liner starts to go down after the bombing.

10. The
Lancastrians
last moments as men crowd on the upturned hull and plunge into the sea.

11. Survivors, some naked, most covered in oil, cram on to a rescue vessel.

12. Tea – hot and sweet – was a great comfort.

13. Sister Chamley of the Church Army, who handed her life belt to a soldier.

14. Wally Smith shook hands with his friend Stan Flowers before jumping from the liner. He was never seen alive again.

15. Stan Flowers got a will to live when he remembered it was his mother’s birthday.

16. Fred Coe, former boy soldier and Bren gunner on the
Lancastria
who was pulled from the water on to a rescue boat.

17. General Alan Brooke (centre), who had master-minded the second evacuation from France, with survivors and his staff on the voyage home.

18. British newspapers reported the disaster – six weeks later and for one day.

19. Churchill thought the press had had quite enough bad news. So he ordered that the disaster was not to be covered.

20. Jacqueline Tillyard, who floated away from the ship in her mother’s arms at the age of two.

21. Jacqueline Tillyard with Joan Rodes (right), the ‘Angel of St-Nazaire’ who crossed the bay on a rescue boat though pregnant.

22. Joan Rodes with two men she helped to save, Percy Fairfax (left) and George Youngs (right).

23. Survivors at the memorial service in London in 2004. Fred Coe holds the standard of the Lancastria Association; at the other end of the seat is Denis Maloney whose boat rescued Coe on 17 June 1940.